They say it's part of the price you pay for living in a democracy, but in this case that price is soaring out of sight and beyond reason. The price of what? Of our right to privacy, sometimes called 'constitutional protection from illegal search and seizure.' Defense of this right is being used, mostly by the Left, to prevent mandating a national ID card - an idea whose time came long before the deplorable events of September 11. Sadly, it may become a reality only over the (rhetorically) dead bodies of its opponents - or literally over those of future terrorists' victims. Especially at a time like this, we should have every possible assurance that the people we encounter every day have a legitimate right - or valid license - to be here, sharing the blessings of this, the greatest place in the world to live, to love, to work and to play.

I own that right as a citizen, and I respect the rights extended to those who are here with passports, visas, work permits or grants of legal sanctuary. All others, to put it bluntly, should get the hell out - preferably today! We can't (and should not) separate the "right" guys from the "wrongs" merely on the basis of appearance, prejudice or speculation. Neither, though, should we have to guess which is which and who is who. When I check in at an airport, check out with a credit card or cash a check anywhere, I have to show documentary proof of who I am, a requirement that has yet to cause me great pain. Neither have I presented my passport in a foreign land with anything less than not only willingness, but genuine pride and gratitude in its possession.

In short, I don't mind letting people know who I am, and it jest don't bother me none to be asked. I started life with but one ID document, a now-yellowing Birth Certificate, naming my parents and proclaiming to all interested parties that I was not born out of wedlock (so much for political correctness in those days). Subsequently, I acquired a still-valid Social Security number, a Marine Corps serial number, voter's registration, driver's licenses, membership cards, credit cards, debit cards and now-defunct credentials in Foreman Tom's B-Square Club.

Currently, thanks to the Internet, the Freedom of Information Act and the proliferation of "opt-out" information sharing, my biographical details are no more confidential than a movie star's love life. So, why not a National ID Card - one with a security chip to make counterfeiting difficult, plus a law that makes faking one a major felony? Would it purge our ranks of every terrorist? Every illegal alien? Every overstayer of an expired visa? Of course not, but it would certainly make it inconvenient for cheaters to cheat and easier for the fuzz to track them down whenever, and maybe before they did bad things. Would it invade my privacy? Technically yes, but not even to the level of my annual physical exam - and the tradeoff would be a heightened sense of safety for myself and my fellow Americans.

Would it be the "slippery slope" toward totalitarianism predicted by the ACLU, a variety of like-minded ""acronymiacs" and a few ultra-liberals in the Lala-land of academia? Not for people with nothing to be ashamed of and/or lie about. Call it, if you must object, the lesser of two evils, the far greater one being that our population is seeded - read 'poisoned' in some instances - with people having neither the rights nor the privileges mentioned earlier herein. Those are my rights, dammit, and I want to share them only with people of good will and good intentions.

If, in order to insure this. I have to reveal to all and sundry that, as Popeye the Sailor Man put it many years ago, "I yam what I yam," so be it. They are what they are, the people who would denigrate, destroy, dilute and steal the gifts that are uniquely ours as Americans - the despicable people who would wreck a way of life to which they are not entitled, and of which they are unworthy. If we are unwilling or unable to sacrifice a wee bit of our "freedom" in order to rip these tumors from the guts of our society, future historians will shake their heads in wonder (and/or pee themselves in hilarity) over a nation that harbored, educated and protected the privacy of human vermin who murdered its citizens, embezzled its freedoms, thumbed their noses at its values, and grievously wounded its pride. Until we are dealt national ID cards, we'll be playing hands from a deck that is stacked against us in a losing game.

Ready for the next deal?